Four Jesuits denied promotion by Rome

National Catholic Reporter, March 29, 1996 by Pamela Schaeffer

Jesuit Fr. Edward Glynn, provincial superior for the Society of Jesus in Maryland, has been barred by Vatican officials from becoming president of the Jesuit-owned Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass., despite strong support from the school's faculty and boards.

NCR has learned that Glynn, in being denied Vatican approval, joins at least three other U.S. Jesuit theologians who have been barred in recent years from serving as administrators or members of pontifical faculties at the nation's two Jesuit theology schools: Weston and the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, Calif.

The others are Frs. Michael Buckley and David Hollenbach, both former theological advisers to U.S. bishops and both now teaching at Boston College, and Fr. John Baldovin, a professor at Berkeley, though not a member of the pontifical faculty.

Except for Glynn, none would discuss his situation, which in the case of Buckley and Hollenbach have been kept private for years.

Officials at the Congregation for Catholic Education -- the Vatican office that oversees Catholic schools around the world -- are not required to give reasons for denying the "nihil obstat," a Latin term that means "nothing impedes" and allows an appointment to go forward. As a result, reasons for the Vatican's objections remain clouded and may never be known. Further, the ban is as likely to occur through default, that is, by continued questioning tantamount to stonewalling, rather than by direct denial.

Knowledgeable sources say possible reasons for the Vatican's objections to the four, generally regarded as loyal church leaders and cautious theologians, vary from a conflict with a member of the U.S. hierarchy (Glynn), to raising questions about the Vatican's ban on women priests (Baldovin and Buckley), to support of a controversial theologian (Hollenbach).

Even those deeply affected by Rome's opposition say the Vatican is clearly within its right to oversee appointments at pontifical institutions, where the Vatican is, in effect, the accrediting and, regulatory agency. Yet the recent events show that the strictest standards of loyalty to Rome are being applied, even when it comes to highly respected Jesuits selected to serve in their own theological schools.

In the United States, only a few institutions have pontifical faculties. At such schools, which number in the dozens around the world, prospective presidents and professors seeking the status of "professor ordinarius" must have Vatican approval, as must heads of such institutions.

Besides the two Jesuit theology schools, such U.S. institutions include Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio; St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill.; and in Washington, the Dominican House of Studies, the John Paul II Institute and Catholic University.

The Vatican's authority came into play at Catholic University when Fr. Charles Curran, moral theologian, was ousted as a moral theology professor. The Vatican declared in 1986 that Curran's views on sexual ethics made him unsuitable as a Catholic theologian.

A synopsis of events in the four cases involving U.S. Jesuits follows:

Edward Glynn

Fr. Edward Glynn, Jesuit provincial in Maryland since 1990 and formerly president of St. Peter's College in Jersey City, N.J., was chosen by Weston's faculty, its board of trustees and its board of members, composed of the nation's 10 Jesuit provincials, to succeed Jesuit Fr. Robert A Wild as president. Wild becomes president of Marquette University in Milwaukee this summer. Glynn said he was unanimously endorsed by the two boards.

However, in a memo to the school's faculty, administration and staff on March 11, Wild warned of "difficulties in Rome." He noted that Glynn would have to be approved by the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education before Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, general superior of the Society of Jesus and chancellor of Weston, could make the appointment.

"Preliminary inquiries made by Father Kolvenbach suggested that there were concerns on the part of the congregation," Wild wrote. "The precise nature of these concerns was not explained at that time. They do not seem to revolve around any issue of orthodoxy -- and we certainly know of nothing problematic in that area -- but rather, we believe, over a difference of perspective and policy between Ed Glynn and a key church leader, a policy impacting on Catholic higher education. But frankly we are not certain."

It is widely speculated that the obstacle was Cardinal James A. Hickey of Washington, who serves on the Vatican congregation, as does Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston. The congregation is headed by Cardinal Pio Laghi, former papal nuncio to the United States.

Hickey could not be reached for comment: Both Wild and Glynn stressed they have no direct information that Hickey opposed Glynn's appointment.

Glynn, 60, acknowledged, however, that Hickey had pressed him to intercede at Georgetown University, a Jesuit school, in 1991 when officials there granted an abortion rights student group the same privileges as other student organizations. In an interview with NCR, Glynn said he had declined to become involved because he had considered it "inappropriate" for a religious superior to interfere with the work of the university's board. "Georgetown is an autonomous institution," he said.